The Story

Afro-Caribbean laborers built the Panama Canal but were denied a place in the nation they helped transform.

Panama in Black uncovers this erased world through the lives of two Panamanian-born visionaries: George W. Westerman, a journalist turned statesman whose work linked Panama to Black American civil rights leaders and the broader global Black freedom struggle; and Carlos E. Russell, a Brooklyn-based radical whose cultural and political force shaped Afro-Caribbean Panamanian identity in New York.

Their paths unfold across two systems of exclusion: Jim Crow in the U.S.-controlled Canal Zone and the silencing of West Indian heritage in Panama. From this emerges a deeper, multigenerational story of how Afro-Caribbean Panamanians answered exile with invention.

Together, their lives reveal how a people labeled "foreign" shaped community, influence, and belonging on their own terms—redefining what it means to be Black, Caribbean, and Panamanian.

A Black World Without Borders

From Panama to Brooklyn, Colón to Harlem, Westerman and Russell moved through worlds far larger than the historical record would suggest.

Through the Panama Tribune, diplomacy, political organizing, and cultural activism, they connected local struggles in Panama to broader movements for Black freedom. Westerman worked alongside figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Thurgood Marshall, while Russell became a force within Black Power organizing in New York, engaging movements and leaders that included Martin Luther King Jr. 's Poor People's Campaign, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, and Amiri Baraka.

What emerges is a hidden chapter of twentieth-century Black history. This story reveals how deeply Panama was woven into the political and cultural currents that shaped twentieth-century Black America.

THE MEN AT THE CENTER

George W. Westerman (left)

Journalist. Diplomat. Nation-builder.

Through his newspaper, political activism, and international relationships, Westerman connected Panama's Black communities to larger struggles for freedom unfolding across the Americas.

Carlos E. Russell (right)

Radical. Organizer. Cultural force.

From Brooklyn, Russell helped shape a new Afro-Caribbean Panamanian identity, building institutions and movements that challenged invisibility and exclusion.

ENTER THE WORLD

Watch the Sizzle

A first look at the archival materials, voices, and histories shaping Panama in Black.

COMING SOON

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

We think we understand Black history in America—but a major part of that story has been left out

Growing up, I didn't realize that the world around me was part of a much larger story. I was born into it through family, language, music, and community, but I didn’t yet recognize it as such.

My abuelita turned 100 years old this year. She was born in Panama City and raised in the Canal Zone town of Paraíso, part of a generation of Black Panamanians whose lives moved between the Caribbean, Central America, and the United States. When I was four, she took me there for the first time. I returned home to Brooklyn speaking Spanish, carrying pieces of a place I didn’t fully understand.

I was raised in a rich Afro-Panamanian world. My family’s stories, traditions, and social networks were simply part of how we lived. It wasn’t until adulthood that I began to understand how fragile that world is, and how quickly it’s disappearing. Panama in Black comes out of that realization. It’s a way of staying connected to what shaped me, and bringing into view a history that has long existed but has not been fully seen.

— Renata Romain, Director

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Panama in Black is currently in development.

Your support helps fund archival research, rights and licensing, interviews, story development, and the preservation of materials that document the history of Afro-Caribbean Panamanians.

Contributions are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, the Center for Independent Documentary.

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